Value of Analog in Medicine: Digital Compromise to Teach Old-Timer New Trick

mendations for responding to MERS may not be radically different from those for Ebola. Though international health regulations (including MERS) were adopted after the SARS outbreak, little effort has been made to follow through with the initial commitments. Such delays and mismanagement could lead to a global disaster if preparation is not thorough enough in the next epidemic [3]. What Disease Surveillance Should Do Ever since information technology (IT) was introduced, it has not stopped growing. IT with communication technol-ogy has become an essential component in everyday living. It is said unanimously that management would have been a lot easier if IT were involved more actively in MERS care en-vironments. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (K-CDC) have been running integrated disease surveillance systems, which successfully contributed to fighting against the SARS attack [4]. Unfortunately, the K-CDC database was not fully utilized during the recent crisis, not because of in-sufficient knowledge of MERS but because of the deficiency of global standards. The reasons for global connection are obvious and clear. However, standardization is like ‘bell-ing the cat. ’ Everyone agrees that it is necessary, but no one volunteers. It is painful to admit that standards do not come overnight. The US Center for Disease Control and Preven-tion (US-CDC) has invested tremendous effort in collecting nationally notifiable data since 1961 [5]. The US-CDC finally developed the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NEDSS), which facilitates the electronic exchange

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